Our Beloved Boy Wonder, Harry Potter (No Spam)

[Aqua-chan]

(This isn't as long as it originally was. Dang GB erased the first message. . .)

As we all know, Harry Potter has topped even Pokemon in the quest for world-wide domination. The famous books by J. K. Rowling have snapped up the attention of boys and girls, everywhere, of all ages. Think I'm just using a sappy opening? Not quite. Every bit is true, I swear. Now, I'm gonna show you that I know what I'm talking about by backing up what I think.

I saw the first showing of Chamber of Secrets a few hours ago, and have to say, I was fascinated with it. The computer-generated scenes were a bit better than the first movie, which was a major plus, and the plot followed the book beautifully. I loved it. As soon as I got home, I confirmed it with my kids (Who did not go because I wanted to go with friends instead ) that we were GOING to buy the DVD when it comes out. Yes, I'm offically a fan, and here is my biased report.

Everywhere you go, there is Daniel Radcliffe's face nowadays. Posters, toys, pictures, on the internet, inside buildings: merchandice everywhere!

Fans waiting for thier turn to see the movie sat sprawled all around the floor as I walked out from the show. Kids at least 12 years old sat in a circle, one of the boys had a red eye-liner "scar" sketched on thier foreheads. One girl even had a little white Hedwig owl in her arms.

"How cute," thought I, reminding myself to pick up one of those stuffed animals if I saw any. Then I realized it. What provoked such reactions to this saga of witchcraft and wizardry? What is it that really pulls the lot of us Harry Potter followers to the line of obsession in some cases? How is it that such a story could grab our imaginations so easily, and keep a firm hold onto them for so long? Whil ein the meantime, some schools have banned HP merchandice because of Religious (ie Neopaganism and Wiccan practices (yes, it IS a real religion)) descrimination.

Why, a decade and a few years ago, if we had this kind of stuff where I went to school, you'd be thrown out! (Author's Notes: Also, a decade and a few years ago, I'd be falling for Daniel Radcliffe himself. He's so quiet and has the CUTEST smile! )

Now, we're loving our little Wizard-in-training, rooting him and his friends on as they fight monsters, basilisks, trolls and other such beasts. But what draws our child-like fascinations to the world of Harry Potter? What do you think, and back up your opinion. Again, please, no Spam.

[Tybaltus]

First off, Id like to say that Im not a Harry Potter fan. Quite the contrary, actually. I find the stuff quite dull actually, I just cant torture myself to watch the whole thing.

Well anyway:
1-Quick and impressive animations with a fanstasy world automatically draws kids. Think of Disney...all those films attract kids cause of those animations. Then the fantasy world is great for kids. It really expands the imagination, and kids love imagination. I still remember the days where I imagined I was racing with the drivers I saw on tv, and then I got my little toy cars and created an entire town, and made all these imaginary lives within the town. So it really is attractive for kids. It opens their mind. And the protagonist, Harry Potter, is a clear protagonist, and the antagonist is a clear antagonist. Clear battle lines allow kids to get involved and really favor one side and get into the film.

2-Popularity is among the things that cause people to buy stuff. They see many kids with the stuff, so they go out and buy it too. So this can be implemented in movies. If commercials and people say its good, kids will go out of their own curiousity.

3-Friendly colors or faces on stuff appeals to the youngest consumers. But boys, obviously, will be attracted to more macho, but still amusing products. Girls, well I wouldnt know a whole lot about it, but I assume that its more lightly colored products, still encompassing light heartedness, and yet still interactive, but more along the lines of design and fasion. So if one thing can encompass both things, then youve got an easy market for that. Big popularity. But thats only the products....so if these products were Harry Potter products, that would attract the consumers to Harry Potter, and if they havent seen the movie, then theyd want to, cause of the curiousity.

So 1 is really the most significant reason why its attractive for kids.

Why its attractive to adults? I dont know. Im still trying to figure that out. You tell me....please...

[Gruntboy]

We're not all drawn to it. I *hate* HP.

Die, stupid pointless Potter, Die.

[Vicsun]

I've read the first book and I didn't like it. It wasn't awful, but I just didn't like it. And now because of all the hype surrounding it I'm beginning to hate it.

[fable]

I think Rowling's first HP book is poorly written, but she improved in the next two. Can't say I've read anything of hers since; frankly, I didn't like 'em. The whole notion that there is a special class with wonderful privileges due to innate gifts turns my stomach. It fits too neatly into that whole tacitly understood setup that works in throughout western Europe and the US, so that the same people make all the money and get all the important political appointments--because they're simply special people. I'm sure Rowling didn't consciously intend it as such, but her wholehearted endorsement of an upperclass as a special tier just doesn't make for the kind of propaganda I'd want a child to read. Every kid's special, and every person, IMO.

And now, of course, HP is an industry. The newspapers gush over how much the books and movies gross. I find that gross.

[Aqua-chan]

Originally posted by Kayless
Harry Potter is evil I tell you! Evil! Eeeeeeviillll!!!
http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com...a-animated.gif
"You say that about everything."

I just want attention. http://www.highwaygames.com/forum/im...lies/frown.gif

Thanks for the intellectual conversation in this spam-free thread, Kayless....http://boards.harrypotter.warnerbros.../sweatdrop.gif

I've been doing a lot of looking up on it and such, basic research in what the first movie brought it and stuff like that. Friends of mine say they get thier kids into Harry Potter because Pokemon is just a worse hobby, while other friends say the opposite.

On Fable's remark, I'll have to think about the social class thing. SOmething that didn't even cross my mind. Hmm...

[Nightmare]

I'm rather in love with Harry Potter. The first movie was dull, but I'm a huge fan of the books.

[fable]

I've pulled a pair of spam posts from this thread. Please remember that the creator of a thread is entitled to ask for spam, or not--and their wishes should be respected.

[dragon wench]

Originally posted by Aqua-chan
On Fable's remark, I'll have to think about the social class thing. SOmething that didn't even cross my mind. Hmm...

Hmmmm.
Okay... I am going to stick my neck out here and say that I actually really like Harry Potter.
I do not see his character as special in the sense of social class... What I see instead is a celebration of difference..... When we first meet Harry, he is living with his suburban relatives... he is bullied, ridiculed and rejected because he does not fit in. I recall reading about Harry's first night at Hogwart's with my son and I remember this scene in the movie. Harry is profoundly affected at finally having found a place where he fits in and where his "difference" is considered the norm.

How many of us who have experienced schoolyard bullying have not longed for just this to happen?

[fable]

When we first meet Harry, he is living with his suburban relatives... he is bullied, ridiculed and rejected because he does not fit in. I recall reading about Harry's first night at Hogwart's with my son and I remember this scene in the movie. Harry is profoundly affected at finally having found a place where he fits in and where his "difference" is considered the norm.

Hey, you're entitled to like it--and you're not sticking your neck out, either! If anything, I am. There's an army of HP fans, and just one of me.

My point is simply that the book promulgates a two-tiered society: 1) humans, who are either treated as though they're lepers, or the objects of condescension--either way, they're too ignorant, stupid, and powerless to be given knowledge; and 2) the special magic-using types, who live longer, grasp and hold power, get to enjoy all the world's best things, etc. Hell, they even have a special boarding school: echoes of upperclass boarding schools in England, the so-called "breeding grounds of all that's best and brightest amongst us," indeed.

Leaving aside the question of stunted personalities, I see here a reproduction of the old British special upper class and the commonfolk--the one's who Tolkien felt needed to be kept in ignorance "for their own protection." I'm not saying Rowling intended this consciously, but that's what it seems like, IMO.

[Morlock]

Just for my own personal interest, did anyone notice the score by john williams? Particulaly Fawkes' theme?

[der Moench]

@fable; I guess I don't see that "special class of people" thing the way you do. In the books the Muggles are almost a non-issue, AFAIR. They are seldom talked about or dealt with in any depth. So, once Harry does get to Hogwart's, he becomes pretty much "normal." Yeah, he's famous 'cos he's Harry Potter - but that wouldn't do him a bit of good if he were a putz like Mr. Longbottom, or if he were nasty and mean like Malfoy. IMO, what makes him our hero Harry Potter is not his name or even his magical abilities, but his actions. He's loyal, and brave, and hard-working, and kind. I think that that is what most people (and most kids) see in Harry Potter, and I think that those are characteristics worthy of emulation.

Just my tuppence.

Peace.

[Aqua-chan]

I've never really seen a sign of "one side is better than the other", but like Fable said, that's probably because Rowling really didn't have that sort of concept in mind. Who knows? She may have even tried avoiding using too much Muggle stuff in her stories to avoid conflict kind of like this, but it's a small possibility.

DW and der Moench are right about one part (at least when it comes to how I see the books). I liked the magic stuff, yeah, but when it comes down to it, the kids and I view Harry as a reliable person, not magical wizard. We have no intentions of getting the games because ...whats the point? We watch the movies and read the books because we want to see Potter be brave and couragous in his own part: not just because the game MAKES it be that way. Moench has all ready gone over the lot of this part, so I'll finish this part up here.

And heavens, YES! There were times I would LOVE to blow the playground bullies up!

@Fable - thanks for the thread edits.

[Shadow Sandrock]

I love Harry Potter! I just finished the fourth book last week, and I was so into it I couldn't put the books down.

No wonder they think it's evil, I was possessed by it, I swear I never spent so long sitting in one place reading, nor listening to my fave radio station, FNX. (Alternative music, whee!) Thank you Harry and J. K. Rowling for making up Harry cuz I *LOVE YOUR BOOKS* and I can't wait for the fifth one!!!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH I'M GOING INSANE

*points out that any Gundam fans who know what Sandrock is, would know what happens when Quatre goes insane, and know to back away* O_O

Personally I read them and thought they were far to middlin Neither great nor horrible. Yet I am a great fan of the books. No book(s) has turned more young people onto reading than this these.
ANY halfway decent book that gets the kids away from the television, the computer screen and video games long enough to read is alright by me.

YMOS
tommy